Download Discounts for Dec. 21: Samurai II: Vengence, Family Guy, Uno

A bunch of iPhone and iPad games are on sale in the iTunes App Store for the next few days leading up to Christmas at the end of the week — just about all of them for about a dollar. Now is your chance to get some great games for a low price, including three […]

A bunch of iPhone and iPad games are on sale in the iTunes App Store for the next few days leading up to Christmas at the end of the week — just about all of them for about a dollar. Now is your chance to get some great games for a low price, including three excellent ones we’ve included below.

Samurai II: Vengeance (iPhone, iPad) $0.99 (was $2.99)

A hack-n-slash tale of a samurai out for revenge, Samurai II is on sale until Dec. 22. It uses virtual touchscreen controls and a top-down perspective to help you get into sword-fighting action, and has a great-looking, cel-shaded graphical style.

In addition to just pounding away at various enemies on a path to vengeance, Samurai II includes some role-playing game-style elements. You’ll upgrade your character’s health, weapons and abilities to make you a more powerful fighter, as well as work through environmental puzzles and avoid traps as you travel through the game’s story.

Family Guy Time Warped (iPhone) $0.99 (was $4.99)

Based on the popular Family Guy cartoon show, this side-scrolling action/platformer has you controlling Stewie and Brian from the show as they go traveling through time, fighting off Time Police, Egyptian guards, Roman centurians and Old West cowboys. The game features audio and video taken from the TV show, as well, to create as authentic a gaming experience as possible.

Fighting through the Time Warped story will bring you to boss fights with various characters from the show from other times, including Peter, Lois, Meg and Quagmire. There are a lot of different weapons to collect and use during the fight, tool. Fans of the show will have a good time with this one, especially for one-fifth the usual price.

Uno (iPhone) $0.99 (was $4.99)

The card game in which you take no prisoners on the road to getting rid of all your cards is a pretty solid iPhone app, allowing you to play against the computer’s artificial intelligence opponents or battle real players in the game’s online multiplayer mode.

Uno for iPhone contains all the classic game action you remember from playing with real cards, plus the ability to customize rules to change the experience and get different variations on the formula. There’s also a tournament mode that lets you play increasingly difficult games to test yourself.

Phil Hornshaw is a freelance writer, editor and author living in Los Angeles, dividing his time between playing video games, playing video games on his cell phone, and writing about playing video games. He’s also the co-author of So You Created a Wormhole: The Time Traveler’s Guide to Time Travel, which attempts to mix time travel pop culture with some semblance of science, as well as tips on the appropriate means of riding dinosaurs. Check out his Google+ profile.